Dairy giant Arla Foods confirmed a cybersecurity incident at one of its German plants. The affected plant is located in the German town of Upahl where operations were hit. Arla owns popular brands like Lurpak and Castello known widely across many European markets. The company stated that “suspicious activity” had directly impacted its cooperative IT network there. As a result production has been significantly affected due to implemented stringent security measures. Arla’s production and IT experts are now working diligently to resume all normal operations. They have begun systematically restarting systems to ensure a full return to functionality soon. The Denmark-based group however declined to provide any further comments when recently contacted.
In 2024 Arla Foods generated substantial sales revenue of €1.27 billion within Germany alone.
This figure represented a notable 1.5% sales increase compared to the previous year’s performance. Germany stands as Arla’s third-largest market based on total annual sales volume. Only the United Kingdom and Sweden currently rank as larger markets for the company. Arla’s total group revenues for the year 2024 successfully reached a significant €13.8 billion. The cooperative also reported employing 1,635 staff members in Germany during the last year. Its entire global workforce consisted of 23,632 employees according to its recent annual report.
Last month Arla Foods announced its ambitious plans to merge operations with Germany’s DMK. DMK is recognized as the largest dairy cooperative currently operating within the German market. A joint statement indicated the deal would create Europe’s largest combined dairy cooperative entity. This new entity would have members across Denmark Sweden UK Germany and other nations. The merged company would continue to retain the Arla name and be headquartered in Denmark. This major transaction could bring combined pro-forma revenue of around €19 billion annually. In 2024 DMK itself generated revenue of €5.1 billion with popular brands like Milram.
A Rabobank report ranked Arla 7th and DMK 18th largest dairy groups globally in 2023.
The Arla incident adds to recent cyberattacks impacting Germany’s food and beverage sector. Just last week Oettinger Getränke a German beer group also reported a serious cyberattack. The privately owned company officially confirmed the security breach had occurred on its systems. It announced it was thoroughly investigating the potential for any significant customer data leaks. Specialist publication Cybernews reported that ransomware group Ransom House claimed involvement in it. This group Ransom House alleged it held a large amount of data from the brewer. These unfortunate events highlight growing cybersecurity risks for major German consumer goods companies. Such incidents clearly emphasize the crucial need for robust defenses against various cyber threats.
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